


love like ours

by juliansweigl



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-27 01:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17757575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juliansweigl/pseuds/juliansweigl
Summary: Thomas doesn’t think he realised just how affectionate him and Manu were until after they crossed that blurry line between friends and something more.





	love like ours

**Author's Note:**

> hello, hi, how are you? (enjoy this lil thing I wrote in the car this afternoon) :')

Thomas doesn’t think he realised just how affectionate him and Manu were until after they crossed that blurry line between friends and something more.

 

When they were just friends, the lingering touches still happened, they still hugged, if Thomas had held his hand out for Manu to slap – Manu would _always_ hold on for a second or two longer than necessary. It became normal pretty quickly, for Manu to seek out Thomas before and after a game, the second that the final whistle blew – Manu would instantly find Thomas’ body in-between their teammates and start moving towards him, some call it an instinctive reaction, they had a different word.

 

Their teammates stopped sending them pointed looks pretty quickly (except for Mats, who always had a smirk and a knowing glimmer in his eyes – though, he’s one to talk).

 

Still, it takes Thomas by surprise even now that Manu _always_ has to seek Thomas out, even when they’re doing something as simple as sitting on the couch watching TV. Thomas has never brought it up, why would he? He loves it when Manu closes even the most miniscule of gaps between them.

 

(Thomas thinks it works in his favour the majority of the time).

 

Manu is enraged, shouting so loud that his voice is hoarse, storming down the tunnel towards the dressing room – Joshua squeaks and backs off when Manu strides past him, stumbling against Leon. Thomas glances up from where Mats is listing off reasons why it’s _not_ entirely his fault they conceded three. Thomas only just catches a glimpse of his boyfriend before he disappears completely into the dressing room.

 

“- You definitely should have cleared the ball for the second.” Thomas slaps Mats’ shoulder with a half-hearted attempt at a smirk as Mats gapes at him. “- Don’t give me that look.”

 

Mats splutters and tries to come up with a scathing response but whilst he’s still floundering, Thomas leaves him hanging. He sends a small smile to Joshua as he passes and enters the dressing room, eyes on the noticeable gap between Manu and the rest of their teammates.

 

Manu’s eyes flare and he scowls when Mats enters the dressing room causing Mats to shrink even further, stumbling over his own feet to reach his locker whilst looking for a quick getaway before Manu yells.

 

If Thomas is being honest, aside from the game itself which was a disaster from the seventh minute when they conceded the first, he finds the situation highly amusing.

 

It’s why he has no trouble in crossing the room and stepping in front of Manu, feeling the corners of his lips twitch as he lays a gentle hand on Manu’s shoulder – feeling his boyfriend’s muscles relax under his palm.

 

Manu isn’t completely calm, still tense but Thomas kneads his shoulder carefully and Manu emits a sound crossed between a sigh and a small bout of laughter. Thomas’ eyes glance down to his captain before lifting his thumb and brushing the pad across Manu’s neck, subtly, nobody paying the slightest bit of attention to them.

 

**

 

The first time Thomas notices it is by complete accident.

 

He’s in the middle of replying to a message that Mats sent him involving a video that Thomas is quite honestly _scared_ of opening. He smiles at Manu when his boyfriend sits down on the couch beside him and automatically reaches for the remote.

 

It had been a long day, Manu’s eyes starting to drop as he lazily flicks through the different TV stations looking for something interesting enough to keep him up at least another hour before it’s a more respectable time to go to bed.

 

It’s an impulse really, Manu’s hair is still wet from his shower and Thomas lifts his hand to brush the hair out of his eyes. His hand tangles slightly in his locks and Manu makes a noise, at first Thomas thinks he’s protesting but as Thomas tries to detangle his fingers – he hears it _again_.

 

Manu’s cheeks are pink and he’s actively keeping his eyes on the TV, staring at the screen, unblinking. Thomas gauges his reaction for a moment, for the briefest of seconds he begins to doubt he even heard anything and maybe it was in fact the noise of the TV.

 

That doesn’t stop Thomas trying it again, _wants_ to hear it, and wants to know if he’s hearing what he _thinks_ he’s hearing. Thomas is a lot more careful this time, brushing his hand through Manu’s hair and this time it’s clear. Manu is purring at the sensation.

 

This time Manu does blush and pulls the collar of the hoodie he’s wearing up so that it’s covering the majority of his face, his cheeks reddening even more blatantly this time.

 

Thomas grins and twists so that he can pull Manu against his chest, their legs intertwining. His hand doesn’t leave Manu’s hair, twirling the slightly longer strands and letting his fingers scratch against Manu’s scalp.

 

Manu sounds like a cat. The noise vibrates against Thomas’ chest causing Thomas to snicker slightly but mostly he just finds himself relaxing as Manu curls around him, snuggling into him. He would find it a lot funnier if the entire thing wasn’t so damn endearing.

 

**

 

Cuddling is to be expected in most relationships.

 

Thomas just doesn’t realise how much Manu _loves_ it. The first time it happens, Thomas is close to dozing off on the couch when he feels a weight against his chest and the tickling of hair against his chin. He barely cracks on eye open before he’s met with an eyeful of dirty blond hair and Manu sighing contentedly against his chest.

 

“Are you okay?” Thomas asks, bringing up his hand to rest against the back of Manu’s neck, stroking his hair softly.

 

“Fine. Why?”

 

Thomas shrugs, he doesn’t have a coherent enough question to ask in response to that.

 

Thomas learns pretty quickly cuddling is going to happen more than he thinks. In the end, he half-expects it to happen whenever he’s on the couch or in bed - so much so that he automatically lifts his arm when Manu enters the room because he _knows_ it’s going to happen. Not that he minds of course.

 

It doesn’t just happen then either. Thomas returns from his parents sometime on Sunday evening and the minute that he throws the door open - Manu is immediately latching onto him.

 

“You’re worse than the dog.” Thomas laughs as he slowly wraps his arms around Manu.

 

Manu groans and mumbles something incoherent into the side of Thomas’ neck as he holds on tighter, knocking them both off balance momentarily, barely missing colliding with the still open front door.

 

Thomas doesn’t even protest when Manu finally lets him go long enough to drag him over to the couch and revert back to their usual position of Manu lying across Thomas, his head on Thomas’ chest and their fingers intertwining ever-so-loosely.

 

“Have you always been this cuddly?”

 

Manu lifts his head up drowsily, clearly forgoing staying awake the moment his head aligned with the beating of Thomas’ heart. He stares at Thomas as though he’s carefully calculating his response, his face contorts into a somewhat confused expression as he struggles with an answer.

 

“No but-” Manu moves to their still joint hands to try and prove his point but all he ends up doing is letting his head fall onto Thomas’ chest again and lets their hands dangle off the side of the couch. “I just like it.” He mumbles out sleepily.

 

Truthfully, Thomas can’t find himself to complain with that logic.

 

**

 

As much as Thomas loves to kiss Manu (amongst other things), one of his favourite things is to kiss Manu’s cheek whenever he gets the opportunity to. It’s a simple gesture but it still flusters Manu in the sweetest way possible (when he’s not rolling his eyes of course), but normally his cheeks just redden whenever Thomas’ lips brush against them.

 

It’s become a natural thing to do when Manu’s cooking because as it should be, Thomas is _banned for the rest of eternity_ from cooking anything after the frying pan disaster of ’16 – one does wonder how you can burn a frying pan to barely more than a crisp.

 

After realising that no matter how many times he’s tried; Manu has never been able to ban Thomas completely from the kitchen and instead settles for his boyfriend watching him attentively as he cooks them dinner.

 

The TV is on in the background and for a good few minutes, Thomas sits on the counter and listens to it but he can never quite take his eyes off Manu, smiling when he turns around and catches the raised eyebrows that Manu sends him.

 

It’s not exactly a rule but after the breakfast incident in March, Manu had to practically force Thomas to sit down and not distract him when cooking – he hasn’t exactly forgiven Thomas for the makeout session that ended up with a (slight) fire and more breakfast covering them than they ended up eating. ( _The shower afterwards was more than worth it though_ ).

 

It doesn’t stop Thomas trying.

 

Holding on to Manu’s hip, Thomas leans up and kisses his boyfriend’s cheek.

 

“I love you, you know that?” Thomas murmurs, the words hitting Manu’s cheek as Manu nods.

 

“I know but I’m still not letting you help.” Manu chuckles as he nudges Thomas in the ribs with his free hand.

 

Thomas heaves a dramatic sigh but kisses Manu’s cheek once more nevertheless before retreating back to his position on the counter.

 

**

 

The first time it happens is when Thomas is trying to grab Manu’s attention, it’s completely accidental and it only happens because that’s the only body part that Thomas can grip in the tunnel.

 

Thomas reaches forward and just manages to catch Manu’s pinky to stop him from walking. Manu stops abruptly and turns around, a small grin twitching at the corners of his lips, eyes flickering down to the way that Thomas has his pinky curled around his.

 

“What?”

 

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Thomas asks him, raising his eyebrows incredulously.

 

It takes Manu a good second or two with the noise building outside in the stands before he realises and steps closer to Thomas allowing himself to melt (but not as much as both of them want to) into Thomas’ open arms. If he’s being honest, if Thomas got to choose, he’d much rather give Manu a good luck kiss rather than a hug just before they enter onto the pitch but, _perhaps_ one day.

 

It’s late. Both of them up way later than they would be after a game but still running off the adrenaline of a much needed win to begin to close the gap at the top of the league.

 

Thomas, truthfully, is close to falling asleep, feeling the back of his eyes start to sting as he keeps his head upright with his hand.

 

He doesn’t feel it at first, too tired, staring with far too much intensity at the TV to feel Manu’s pinky grazing his own. It’s one of the rare nights that Manu isn’t overly cuddly, that they’re only touching by the way that their legs are intertwined atop of the coffee table.

 

Thomas has his eyes closed, finally succumbing to the overwhelming exhaustion and figuring that the couch isn’t the most uncomfortable thing in the world when he feels his hand moving. He jolts awake groggily before turning his attention to his hand, more specifically the way that Manu has his pinky wrapped carefully around Thomas’.

 

 _Jesus_.

 

Manu has his head on the back of the couch, mouth open slightly as he sleeps but Thomas can’t take his eyes of the fact they’re _holding pinkies_ . Part of him wants to laugh, it’s such a childlike gesture but _god,_ he refuses to let go.

 

It’s not the good luck kiss that Thomas desires but somehow, somewhere along the line, standing and lining up in the tunnel before games, Manu moves his arm back and Thomas wraps his pinky around his boyfriend’s. It’s always hidden from the cameras and Thomas wonders whether that’s why Manu loves it so much. It’s not as common, it’s not as normal as hugging because they usually hug their teammates quickly, in passing in the tunnel - it’s not as out there and downright terrifying as being caught kissing by somebody who isn’t supposed to know.

 

 _It’s theirs though_ , and quite simply, that’s all that matters.

**Author's Note:**

> [ tumblr!](https://hoewedeshummels.tumblr.com)


End file.
